For those who are tired of seeing Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet play out precisely the same in numerous re-tellings, Rosaline is not that story. In the original play, Rosaline is a footnote at best. She is not known for much other than being the woman Romeo claimed to love just before meeting Juliet.
In Hulu’s original movie, Rosaline takes center stage. Her love affair with Romeo comes to an unsurprising but abrupt end when Romeo meets Juliet, and their affair starts with love at first sight. However, Romeo disregards his relationship with Rosaline, not even bothering to tell her their romance has ended.
One of the biggest things the film discusses is whether Rosaline even considers Romeo as someone she is in love with. Their visions of the future are different. Romeo sees himself as a poet in the mountains while Rosaline takes care of the children. It is not the same as Rosaline’s hopes for her future, which include passions and desires of her own outside of being a mother, wife, and caretaker.
Although Rosaline spends the film claiming her feelings for Romeo are true, she has a much more exciting dynamic with Dario, a man she has no interest in marrying, given her wish to marry for love, not due to duty or an arranged affair.
While Rosaline eventually falling in love with Dario is not necessarily a shock, it is a far more intriguing dynamic than any other romantic couple the movie provides, including the likes of Romeo and Juliet themselves.
The film plays against the backdrop of the classic love story, as Juliet and Romeo’s affair happens in the background of Rosaline’s perspective of events. The movie does not have the protagonist fall for Dario at first sight and then turn the film into an uncomfortable love square.
Instead, the film takes the time to show Rosaline and Dario bonding and getting to know each other throughout the story. Their dynamic is integral to the story because it also turns into a movie discussing what a genuine connection feels like, something Rosaline struggled to define when talking about Romeo.
However, Hulu’s original film also succeeds in poking holes in Romeo and Juliet’s story as well. Juliet and Romeo’s romance begins with love at first sight in the original play. They know nothing of significance about each other except that Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet, which means they come from rival families.
Their central conflict surrounds that they want to be together, but their families will not allow it. Their desperation to be together, given how little they have known each other and know about each other, suggests they are more swept away in physical attraction and adrenaline than legitimate love.
Shakespeare’s classic ending results in the tragic deaths of both central characters, with the two families realizing the extent of their rivalry. The conclusion in Rosaline addresses the issues with this.
Rosaline portrays a different conclusion: Romeo knows that Juliet is alive and never commits suicide, ensuring that Juliet survives the night. When the two families arrive, Rosaline and Dario, work together with Romeo and Juliet to trick the Montagues and Capulets into believing that Juliet and Romeo are dead. In the end, they pull it off.
Now that everyone thinks they are dead, Romeo and Juliet sneak off with Rosaline and Dario to Dario’s boat, where Juliet and Romeo can escape Verona and live together peacefully. It is a grand escape that Rosaline and Dario consider themselves proud of as they walk away, with Rosaline having made up with Juliet and Romeo, respectively.
But that is not where it ends. Romeo and Juliet’s trip on the boat is a several-hour journey, and a brief glimpse into that ride proves how much the starcrossed lovers honestly did not know about each other.
They know nothing about what makes the other person tick, whether it be the smallest or biggest details about them. For all they claim to be in love and know each other so well, they genuinely do not know anything of each other, which calls into question whether their love is genuine. While it is likely mostly done for comedy, it also brings up several good points about the relationship between Shakespeare’s original characters.
As a movie in its own right, Rosaline is a comical and updated portrayal of Romeo and Juliet from a new perspective and tone that is not afraid to have some fun with the original material to make itself unique compared to other re-tellings of Shakespeare’s original story.
